Catharine was clothed in strange beauty that evening. A painful wildness glittered in her eyes, her lips were like marble, and her cheeks looked cold as snow. She had no bonnet on, but a scarlet shawl had been hastily flung over her dress of black silk, a costume that contrasted vividly with the snow of Mrs. Oakley’s bridal apparel.
“What is this? Why have you come in a black dress, and with that mournful face?” she questioned, while Mrs. Judson drew proudly up, first in resentful astonishment, then with a slow dawning of memory, that left her pale and aghast, but still haughtily upright.
“I have come,” said Catharine, in a low, pained voice, “I have come, because it must be. Not to share your joy, but to quench it. Not to witness your marriage, for the man who waits for you—I would soften these words, if I knew how, but it must be said—is my own husband.”
For a moment there was a dead silence in the room. Every face was white, and every person dumb with amazement.
“I wish,” said Catharine, “this duty had been spared me. I struggled and prayed to cast it off. The wreck of one heart was enough. I would not have waited so long, or have spoken now, but that silence would become guilt.”
“This is not true!” exclaimed the bride, pressing a hand to her heart, that trembled and throbbed till the cloud of lace that fell over it shook with the agony. “I tell you the thing is impossible!”
“I wish it were. The God of heaven is my judge, that I do not wound you, or him, willingly. But it is a miserable duty, which I cannot escape.”
“Send for him. Send De Marke hither at once,” almost shrieked the bride, as she stood up with an effort at firmness, but trembling from head to foot. “To his face, you must make this charge. Call De Marke, I say!”
The maid went out, leaving the group petrified into silence, waiting like so many ghosts.
They had not long to wait for the bridegroom. He came with a light step, in full dress, and with one glove in his hand; a flush of supreme happiness was on his face. He could not speak without smiling.